Chapter 8

Her desk was cluttered. She was due to get on the phone, via a translator, and threaten the socks of a Gaefer demon. Her back was sore and she was mad as hell at the brief on her desk. Buffy had been in the office for about five minutes.

She tackled the crises one at a time. She wrote a very short and not very nice response to the underling, who had sent her the brief, and stated very clearly why the cult of vampire wanabees in LA couldn't just be killed. They could weird and gothic all the wanted, she said, until they started killing people for blood. Then she would get mad.

After that, there was eh Gaefer demon. He chaffed her, the chauvinistic jerk. She almost hung up in his ear a few times, but she threatened to come see him in person and talk about their differences, he started being a little nicer. A thinly veiled threat from a slayer still held pull with demons.

Once that mess was sorted, she started cleaning her desk. Most of the papers had to be filed, others were notes she could get rid of. Some she had forgotten she needed to sign. It was almost lunch by the time her desk was finally clear. Looking up to see who was casting a shadow over her work, she smiled to see her Angel.

He kissed her check and crouched at her side, rubbing her belly for a few moments. She let herself relax a little.

"Rough morning?"

She nodded. She liked her job. It was challenging and kind of fun sometimes. She was shown a lot of respect most of the time, and it was a nice change to deal with demons with words instead of her fists. She wouldn't be much help in a fight these days anyway.

Her stomach protruded far over the edge of her pants, and she couldn't sit as close to the desk as she wanted to. She was in her twenty-seventh week, and the doctors had given her a tentative due date of September 16th. She was not excited about having her third trimester during the LA heat. She already noticed that her energy was being zapped, not uncommon during the third trimester. For a couple months, she had felt like superwoman. Now she felt like superwoman who had been hit by a truck.

Angel put his ear against her stomach and smiled. The baby was moving around, getting to ready to kick. He always kicked in the afternoon. Angel called the baby a 'he' but he really had no idea what the sex was. He didn't care. He just wanted a happy healthy baby that no one as going to take away from him.

At times, the strain got to him. His businesses were thriving, Wolfram and Hart was going through a growth spurt, and he was happier than he had ever been. Even with all his good fortune, as Buffy grew with the baby inside her, he became more and more nervous. Flashes of a past that existed for only him would come unbidden to his mind, and he found himself more than a few times drenched in freezing sweat and sitting with shaking hands.

He wouldn't tell her. He wouldn't be able to explain to her why he had such fears. He dealt with it the best way he could. He was just proud he was staying out tot the bottle. He hadn't been drunk since those few days before Christmas. He was happy for that, but he had been forced to find other ways to deal with his emotions. Not all of them were healthy.

Standing, he took Buffy's hands in his and helped her to her feet. She took a deep breath and smiled tiredly at him. She needed to go home.

"Anything pressing for this afternoon?"

"Not really, I think all major crises have been averted. I'm hungry."

Laughing, he put his arm around her. "Let's go home. I'll make you lunch and you get some rest."

"I'm not a baby. I can last a full day at work." She was walking with him downstairs anyway. She was only protesting half heartedly. She wanted to snuggle next to the full body pillow on their bed and sleep for four days. She had read that this was the time of her pregnancy she would be most exhausted, but she hadn't thought it would be this bad.

The drive home was quiet. Angel told her about what Xander was doing in Dubai, the people he had found making sacrifices to a hell god in order to bring him into this world. She knew he was purposefully leaving out the fact that the sacrifices had been of children. He was upset by this, and she knew he didn't want to talk about that part of it. Xander had called her yesterday from the hotel he was staying at and told her all about it; she didn't feel it necessary to tell Angel that.

She was happy he was speaking. He had been so excited when he found out she was pregnant. After his initial elation, though, he had become withdrawn again, and she had feared a repeat of their first few days together. He seemed to get himself together quickly, however, and her fears were postponed for the time being. Now, he doted on her. He cooked for her, he massaged her back and ankles, he even went maternity shopping with her a few times.

Most of her shopping had been Fred before the other woman gave birth. Buffy had panicked a little when she found the only way she could wear her pants was pulled low below her stomach. She had panicked further when none of the clothing she had suitable for the office would fit anymore. Even camisoles and unbuttoned blouses started to look a little ridiculous.

Fred had been in her eighth month when Buffy had asked to go shopping with her. Fred had been small up until her last month, and then he stomach grew exponentially. There had been some concern over her lack of weight gain, but the baby was healthy on the ultrasounds and Fred said she kicked all the time. Fred had barely looked pregnant for the first thirty weeks. Buffy looked like she swallowed a beach ball.

The two women had started becoming attached to each other. Fred told Buffy very embarrassing things about carrying a child that made Buffy a little green in the face. The two liked spending time together, though. Fred was funnier than she let on, and Buffy could sense that the woman just needed a friend to confide in. Fred wasn't as tough as nails as she wanted everyone to believe, Buffy concluded.

The food Angel made was always delicious, and it was always good for her. He did nothing without thinking of the baby, she thought. He kissed her and talked to her for a while before she fell asleep. He left soon after.

The stack of papers on his desk was twice the size it had been when he left. He would never begrudge Buffy his time, though. He would rather give up everything at Wolfram and Hart than spend less time with her. She needed help now; her due date was fast approaching. She was tired and hungry and cranky a lot. He didn't mind much. He was just glad she was the one that had to carry their baby and not him. As long as the cosmos saw fit to make her the one to gain thirty pounds of baby weigh, he would take off as much time as he needed.

He dove into the pile of briefs with not so much enthusiasm as determination. He ignored the calls coming from Gunn's office and he basically ignored Gunn when he came in to talk about something. He signed whatever it was that Gunn wanted signed after a precursory glance and went back to work. It wasn't until Will came in, without knocking, looking like he had the world on his shoulders did Angel stop what he was doing.

"We need to talk."